Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a surface treatment for steel and, in particular, for a surface treatment for steel to be used on meat and poultry processing equipment.
Description of Related Art
Presently, in the food processing industry, many meats are processed on an assembly line where workers place the animal to be processed on a conveyor system and workers downstream cut the meat from the bones. The meat is then processed or packaged for human consumption. To increase efficiency, multiple conveyors are used to convey the separate pieces of meat. In this way, once a cut of meat is removed from the bone, that meat can be placed on a conveyor belt and, as other cuts are made, those pieces of meat can be placed on other conveyor belts. This allows the processing facility to separate out the different types and cuts of meat without a manual downstream separation process.
It has become increasingly important in the food processing industry in general, and the poultry processing industry in particular, to provide a sanitary product to the public. A health conscious and knowledgeable public require that the food products available on the market be of the highest quality. Food products must be safe and free from undesirable side effects due to disease-causing bacteria or harmful chemicals being present on the product.
The problem of disease-causing bacteria exists in the poultry processing industry. Bacteria is inherent on the outside of poultry carcasses and as a normal member of their intestinal flora. A typical poultry processing plant operates in a mass production line manner and can serve as a breeding ground for these bacteria. One of the most common breeding grounds for bacteria in the poultry processing plant is the conveyor that transports the poultry carcasses past workers to allow the workers to cut the poultry carcasses. During that process, many of the inherent internal or intestinal bacterial flora of the animal can be released onto the conveyor. Although much of this bacteria can be removed by periodic rinsing and cleaning of the conveyor equipment, the surface roughness of the conveyor equipment may allow bacteria to remain on the conveyor after the equipment has been rinsed and cleaned.
Accordingly, current poultry processing conveyors are difficult to completely sanitize, while often permitting certain bacteria to grow on the equipment surfaces of the conveyor, even after the conveyor equipment has been rinsed and cleaned.